Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Dear School Administrators......

Well, the time is now upon us for ice and snow and inevitably school delays. I find myself to be well informed about the weather and pay close attention to impending storms. Therefore I am pretty sure I know when to turn on the radio, the television, or the computer to determine whether or not our school is delayed or closed. For reasons unknown to me, you, our school officials, feel that the parents in our school district are no longer capable of handling such a miniscule task. This morning my telephone rang at 5:10 a.m. Naturally, as anyone who is still in bed at this time can imagine, it was a bit startling. My thoughts immediately went to my husband who works third shift. I feared that he may have been in an accident or something equally scary. Panicking, I ran to the phone, only to hear nothing on the other end. Because I don't have caller ID, I immediately dial *69 to determine who was calling. I recognized the number right away as the number to the school. "Why would anyone be calling from the school at 5:10.", I asked myself. My heart rate finally beginning to slow down, the phone rings again. This time when I answered it, it was a prerecorded message from YOU, letting helpless, little, old me know that our school is on a two hour delay. Whew! Thank God you called. I have no idea how I could have possibly found out that little bit of information myself. At 6:15, when I normally wake up. No seriously, it is inappropriate to call anyone at this time of day unless it is an emergency. So, in the future, please put a little bit more faith in the parents of the children in your district. We are at least capable of knowing when to send our children to school.

136 comments:

Looks like your feet hit the floor around the same time mine did! Sorry for that inconvenience! I completely agree with you...certainly, parents are smart enough to figure out school delays/cancellations on their own. To be awakened at that early morning hour is senseless. If the phone rings when I'm in a dead slumber, I immediately think the worst and it takes me forever for my heart rate to slow down enough for me to fall back asleep...if I'm lucky!

I love this post. As someone who has lived in California her entire life, I have often dreamed of the beauty of being able to enjoy a "snow day" with my kids. However, after reading this, I am not so sure. 5:10 am? Oh my! I get annoyed when people call my house after 8:30 at night. Your early wake-up call takes things to an entirely new level.

I really hate when the phone rings like that at an odd hour and the first thing that comes to mind is that someone you love is hurt. That feeling takes a long while to shake--I imagine you weren't able to fall back to sleep after that!

The beauty of SC is that if they hear a rumor they may be getting snow, they close a day in advance. It's hilarious (until summer when the kids have to make it up, they don't allow for snow days in the schedule)

I hear ya, and the rule in this house and while growing up as a child is that no one...NO ONE calls before 9am or after 8pm.

BUT, let me play devils advocate for uno momento por favor...the sad thing is, the reason they do that, is probably because they are some parents who cannot in fact find that information out themselves.

I love how it's deemed necessary to spoon-feed everyone certain things. What are we all becoming?! Helpless?! Maybe we WILL be if that keeps up...reminds me of WALL*E...cute, cute movie. Watch it with the kids! =]

My husband is a school counselor, so we get those calls, too. It's brutal. Your district might be different, but you would be shocked at the number of parents who don't know that they can check many methods to see if school is closed. Kids still show up on time. It's crazy. I don't know if some parents who work might need that extra time to arrange for their kids to be taken care of, but I do know that it's sad for anyone to be awakened by a shrill bell when the sun is still nice and sleepy. That's why I'm glad the sun is out around here... those calls are finally OVER!! :) I hope you enjoy your SITS day!

Happy SITS day! Your "letter" could have been from me. Those early morning calls are awful for the heart! And they not only call our house phone but our cell phones as well. One time I got a call while I was visiting my sister across the country!

When I was in school, you stared at the news feed on the bottom of the screen, hoping for a day off. When it rolled by, it was like winning the Lottery. Of course, my mother was probably in the corner banging her head against the wall.

I guess I'm in the minority but it would be nice if our school called us with school closures and delays. (and I'm up around 5am). I had one very frustrating day this past winter where I checked every station I knew about and no closures were listed. I managed to crawl in the snow (okay...it wasn't that bad) to the school to find it locked and no cars in front. Boy...I was HOPPING MAD! Happy SITS day!

Ah the old catch-22. To call. Not to call. And a perfect example of the dumbing down of our society. You'd think parents would be 'smart' enough to figure this out, but I would imagine that if they didn't call, or they didn't call early enough, surely there would be other parents cursing them out for NOT calling. Guess the schools have to go with the lesser of the two and assume that everybody is "dumb." I guess they do the best they can, but you're right. That's mighty early in the morning!!

Yikes!! My daughter is a 6th grader at a middle school & I continually get calls for "8th grade parents". You can't tell me that their phone system can't be programed to call only the 8th grade parents!!!

I *hate* those pre-recorded calls from the school. Even more, I *hate* the ones for a totally different school, in another school district that keeps calling and I cannot get them to take my number off the calling list.

I personally like the calls but it is easy for me to go back to sleep in the mornings. But, I do think everyone should have the option to be on the call list for snow days or not. Maybe the school systems should rethink this through a little bit.

It was snowing pretty hard here one day last month. I was watching the weather on the news, checked the school's website, nothing about a closure. My hubby took our daughter to school and when he got back, said there were NO teacher cars in their parking spots. Kids were being dropped off though. We looked at the news again and looked at the clock, it was AFTER their starting time, and then they sent word the school was closing. You know what the school did? Put a NOTE up on the front doors for the kids already there that school was going to be closed. I was livid. Thankfully, we live a couple minutes away but for those parents who have a real commute...

We rarely have delay days or weather days here in Texas, but it's very nerve-racking when we do! No kids here, but the roads are quite evident - I don't think many Texans know how to react to these occurances...

You should check to see if you can opt out of the call. Our school started the automated phone calls last year (recorded by the principal or super) and we had to fill out paperwork with the numbers we wanted the calls to go to, cell phones, etc. They use it if your child is absent, if there is an emergency at the school, early dismissal, etc. I don't like the early calls but I love the system for the other stuff. (Ours has to be early though-we have a regional system and our high school bus goes by at 6:20) It's a quick way to let everyone know if something has happened at school.

I am thankful I don't have to worry about snow days anymore, since my 5 kids are all adults now. (at least physically adults...)But I do remember the frustrating snow days dilemmas...do I or don't I trust their judgement, when it is snowing and blowing out there...dare I trust the school officials that tell me that it is safe for my children to ride on a huge bus, with no seat belts, when the roads are snow packed, and have glare ice underneath? But I would have had to strangle said officials, if they had called me at 5 am. Our district was on the other end of the spectrum...not announcing school closures until 7:30 or later...so I would have to get up and get them dressed, only to find out school was cancelled. Happy SITS day!!!!!!

Good thing about living where we do - they call the night before! The decision has to be mad et he night before because of the private bus service or something - so no 5:15 am calls for us. I would be so confused to get a call at 5:15 am!! So aorry for you!

Congrat's on your SITS day. That's crazy that they would call you so stinkin' early. I'd be truly bugged too. We've yet to only have 1 snow day since having kids in school & it was on the news I never got a call thank goodness -- at least not that early.

I can totally relate to this. My husband used to work graveyard shift so when the school called at oh-dark-thirty to let me know the buses weren't running that day, I immediately freaked out. Then I got irked. (Now we're homeschooling so if I find I'm still on the phone tree, I will simply laugh. We still get PTA emails no matter WHAT I do...)Anyway, happy day to you.

You would think that parents would be able to figure it out. Being a teacher though, I know oh too well that there will always be "that" kid that has parents that don't. One year I ahd a little one (only 5 years old) walk home form school on the last day. School let out 12:00. Mom calls around 2 and ask what time the limo should be there to pick him up for the last day. This family was far from wealth and yet this mom was way more concerned with having a limo pick up her five year old becuse he was 'graduating' than kowing what he was doing at home ALONE.

Unfortunately, this happens more often than not.

Sorry that you got woken up early though. I would have been equally as upset. Being a mom... sleep is a novelty.

That is early! I just wish my son's school would put 'yes' or 'no' on their website if they're gonna have school that day (when there's bad weather, of course). Instead, I'm usually checking the local news every 5 minutes!

This automated phone system thing is nuts! My brother is still in high school, and my mom got an automated phone call from the school saying that he was absent one day. Well, she was pretty upset, but later that after noon, she received another call explaining that EVERY PARENT OF A STUDENT IN THE ENTIRE SCHOOL (around 2000 people) received that message by mistake. Haha... but I'm sure some kids probably got in deep trouble at home before the 2nd message went around!

I actually really love that the schools now call with the message, HOWEVER, our calls arrive at 7:15am - early enough to have not left for school yet, but late enough that if you have kids getting ready for school, you are definitely up and getting ready. Geez - 5:10AM ? That's insane? I wouldn't even remember the message if I were to get it that early in the morning!

Living in Michigan, being a teacher, AND a parent...I can totally agree. Trust me. If there is a chance of snow or delay, parents are usually on top of it. And the internet is pretty common now and most parents know how to use it:)

I had that same complaint with Princess Nagger's school - why do I need a phone call at 5:50 a.m. when she's in afternoon kindergarten? I'm sure I'd figure out there's a delay well before her normal 12:15 pm bus! :)

I think I might have shot someone for calling me that early with NO emergency on the other end. Of course, my hubs is a cop, so unless he is on call, we turn the phone in our room off. I would have slept in.